For Arindam Chaudhuri's IIPM, the wheel has come full circle

New Delhi, Sept 30: The Delhi High Court on September 26 gave its verdict asking the Indian Institute of Planning & Management (IIPM) to restrain from using names like MBA, BBA, management course, management school or business school for courses and programmes that it conduct. The court said the institute was neither a university nor a deemed university as per the law and hence had no right to carry on with the management education business.

The IIPM was also asked to apologise to everyone who visited the website besides displaying the ruling. The court also slapped the institute with a fine of Rs 25,000 for violating its earlier commitment that it will would not mislead about the courses run by it.

Irony for Chaudhuri for he has hit at all his critics so far

The verdict brings to the fore an irony of sort. Chaudhuri, a management guru and also a film producer and director, has been found hitting at his critics hard in the past. The editors of Just Another Magazine and Careers 360 were dealt by SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) suits in 2005 and 2009, respectively. Chaudhuri's institute next dragged Caravan magazine to the court for publishing a profile of the director revealing his ways of making fortune at the common man's expense in 2011. The IIPM filed a Rs 500-million lawsuit against the Caravan in Silchar in Assam.

Two years later, Chaudhuri again sought the judiciary's help to issue an order asking the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) to block 78 URLs, 73 of which he felt were defamatory. Among these URLs was also a July 2012 University Grants Commission (UGC) notice saying the IIPM was not a university as per Section 2(f) of the UGC Act.

After the URLs were blocked, a gloating Chaudhuri launched a tirade against both the UGC and AICTE, accusing them of working at the behest of petty competitors.

Against the IIPM

A PIL was filed calling for the IIPM to be barred from claiming eligibility to offer degrees and diplomas like MBA and BBA and also publishing its link to the International Management Institute in Belgium to allure people.

In December 2013, the IIPM told the court that it would not advertise its products but a year later it was seen that it did not honour the oaths. The details and the admission prospectus were seen on its website.

What AICTE and UGC said about IIPM

Both the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the UGC said the IIPM did not fulfil the mandatory requirements for imparting education in management. The court upheld these observations and asked the institute from using names like "Management School", "Business School" and "B-School".